The Execution
by Silverfur
Summary: long after the war of the ring, legolas and his kin are dwindeling. when legolas and a small group of his guard come to help a new town of men settle in and a fire brakes out, he is charged with the murder of three children and sentanced to death.


~* **LEGOLAS THRANDUILION PRINCE OF MIRKWOOD HAS BEEN SENTANCED TO DEATH FOR THE MURDER OF THREE HUMAN CHILDREN. LEGOLAS WILL BE PUT TO DEATH BY HANGING TOMORROW AT DAWN**

-THE KING *~

_It was a mistake, only a mistake. I didn't mean for it to happen. I was just to slow. The fire, and the smoke, I couldn't breath! And by the time I got there.... oh Valar, why..._

the morning sun streaked down through the cracks in the stone and metal roof, leaking light into the dim and dank cell. Musty air and sorrow hung around it like a thick fog, and the normally lively person inside.

Head bowed and resting on knees, once golden silky hair now dirty and frizzled, looking pale fell down around slumped shoulders and a defeated back. Knees were drawn up for the head to rest on and arms were about themselves A fair face hidden beneath the matted blond waterfall showed days of shed tears and sleeping on the ground. Sky blue eyes were closed to the world as breath came out in white puffs.

Legolas had been charged for the murder of three human children, and now he awaited the moment when the guards would come to get him to take him to the hanging post. The gallows they called it. It wasn't even his fault, he just hadn't been fast enough. And now he would die forsaking his life, and immortality for nearly nothing.

It had been a sunny day, wonderful from all the rain middle earth had been getting that year and Legolas was more than thrilled. Although many of his kin had sailed off to an eternity of bliss, and many human provinces had popped up, foreigners coming in and creating new settlements, he wasn't thwarted by the idea of being overrun, and excepted being deployed out to a new town that lay farther then he had ever traveled before. It was by the ocean, which called to his all the time now.

He had been sent there to help them settle in, along with half the remaining guard, which wasn't much at all. He had been out that day, out and about the small town, and had decided to take his guard for a stroll around the area in hopes of finding anything useful for the new town. It had happened so fast, they were only gone an hour before one of his guard spotted the flames and smoke.

They had ran as fats as they could, which was pretty fast for there lithe elven feet. But it wasn't fast enough. The flames licked at there toes and reached for there hair as they spread out, ushering people to the safety of the beach. Legolas had thought that everyone was safe when he suddenly heard the terrified screaming. He ran as fast as he could to the grass hut only a short distance away. No fire had touched the hut yet and he thought he could get the children out safely.

But when the store house of alcohol suddenly burst, sending forth large pieces of wood and spraying the hut with burning debris. Legolas had leapt forward after a rather large burning piece of wood, most likely a lantern post, and had snatched it up before it lit the now smoldering house. But when he stood strait once more, a bull or cow or horse, he can no longer remember, ran past, knocking his back and sending the burning stick into the side of the grass hut. Obviously someone had heard the children, so they had come running as well, and all they saw was Legolas, burning stick in hand, holding it to the house and holding the door closed. But that wasn't so. In truth he had been trying to rip the burning wood out of the house, while holding up the door so it wouldn't collapse on the frightened children. The people had panicked and wrenched him away, causing the door the collapse and house to burn down, killing the children.

The blame was then stuck onto the prince for their deaths, and as rule, he was to die. Almost everyone believe he was a murderer, a killer, a heartless bastard fairy. But not everyone...

"get up your worthless fantasy creature!" a large brittle looking man came into the forged cell. When the fire burned down there new homes, they had moved back to the stone city were they had originally came from. Think a place looking a lot like France, or Italy. A lot of stone and alleyways and stairs.

Well, they had moved there, and Legolas had been kept in a wood and metal cage driven by ox for four days. And now he was to die. Death by hanging. This was it, he wasn't sure if he was really ready.

But he stood anyway, he let that burly man drag him through the middle of a crowd of cruel and hateful humans, he let that man drag him into the middle of the crowd were to were a large wooden gallows dock sat. he saw the rope that would take his life, the drop under his feet. But he held his head high.

The rope was put over his fair head and tightened to a horribly uncomfortable state. But he kept that dignified look upon his face, he would not waver.

Words were said, and suddenly there was nothing under him. He gasped, choked, and struggled slightly, his world going dark- then a sudden pressure on his side, like hitting a tree at full force, or being slammed into the ground. He was barely aware of the screaming going about. Then he was lifted up, and was being half dragged half carried through the crowd. Someone had him. He caught sight of brown, but that could be anything. And then his world blanked out.

He woke up later into the night, under what looked to be a bridge or drainage tunnel. He coughed raggedly, his throat hoarse. Then turned his head to see a figure, sitting propped against the side of the stone tunnel thing. The person was clad in a brown cloak that looked like it had been through more then a hundred years of wilderness exploring. When he coughed, the figure turned, the cloak covering their head. The person got up lifted his head slightly and poured something down his throat, water it seemed. He coughed and spluttered and the person sighed. Then he blacked out once more.

The second time he awoke, it was beginning to darken, sunset it would seem. He was being hauled by someone that seemed to be struggling.

"w-were.....?" was all he managed to squeak out. The figure halted for a moment then continues on.

" I rescued you, I saw it was a mistake. ..we are outcasts now. We cannot go back to your home, or any left of your kin." short sweet and to the point- and female!

Legolas hiccuped and shifted, which caused the girl to stumble and fall. They both fell to the grassy floor of the earth and Legolas saw wavy brown hair.

"hey, if you wanted down you should have said so."

five years later, when it was safe to come back and live once more as the prince of Mirkwood, Legolas sought the girl out. For they had parted the day before, the girl fearing she would nto be welcomed. He found her and brought her back. And she lived with Legolas in Mirkwood with the elves happily. And was given a special stone after her sudden death, caused by a human illness that there was no cure for. And still that stone stands. Even when all the elves are gone it shall still stand.

_Thank you, thank you so much my friend. You gave me back my life and so much more. I shall never forget you. I take with me to the land of eternal bliss, your wrist charm, and there I shall burry it, for you deserve as much joy as you have given me. Farewell. _


End file.
